Days of Old
by onlyonceinforever
Summary: Two girls, one from Slytherin, the other from Gryffindor, both fall in love with James. James is in love with Lily. Severus, Remus and Sirius have problems of their own. And the first ever Yule Ball is just around the corner. Cowritten with Snape's Gurl :
1. Introductions, Quidditch, and Flirting

**A/N: Well, this story kinda started out as a "bored in class" type of scribble, but we sincerely hope (and obviously think, or else we wouldn't be posting it now would we?) that it's better than that.**

**Disclaimer: Neither Celia nor I have the genius to make up characters like, say, Prongs, but that doesn't mean we can't worship them. If there is an occasional bit of unnecessary Sirius-bashing put in the narrative part of this story, chances are a hundred to nothing that Celia wrote that part, so blame her. Any Snape-bashing is my work.**

**Right, hope you like, and remember to review and tell us what you think!**

**Days of Old**

**Chapter 1**

"Prongs!" bellowed Sirius as he and the other marauders strode out to the Quidditch pitch.

James casually turned, raising a hand to his hair and fluffing it spasmodically. A few girls over by the lake turned and twittered as they stared at his handsome face.

Sirius, who was being ignored by the girls for once in his life, frowned slightly. Suddenly, mass glompage came from behind in the form of his girlfriend, Ashley.

"I know what you're thinking," she said in an eerie fashion. Sirius's frown was replaced by a comic look of shock.

"Oh come on." Ashley rolled her eyes. "You're so obvious. But you've got me and that means commitment. I know it's a big word and everything, but…"

Remus Lupin started laughing silently at Sirius's expression from behind his Ancient Runes book.

"Shut up, Moony," Sirius said, grinning saucily. His head was swollen and he was enjoying the attention.

"I thought we were going to practice Quidditch," James said majestically. His redheaded object of affection had momentarily moved out of his sight.

Peter Pettigrew should've been with them, but he was in detention washing Mrs. Norris. Not that anyone missed him much.

Suddenly (and rather randomly), Sirius noticed Severus Snape and his only friend, Celia sitting on the edge of the Quidditch pitch, studying hard. Severus had his nose, quite literally, in a book. His dark hair swung in a greasy curtain as he moved to turn the page.

"Hey there, Snivellus!" Sirius bellowed.

The air was heated by the obvious tension as Celia looked up and met Ashley's eyes. They were secretly friends, but enjoyed the tension between the two groups too much to let on.

"Unlike you, Black, I am fortunate enough to be privileged with a more than adequate amount of brain cells," Snape said sneeringly. Celia smirked.

Ashley smirked as well, reluctantly admitting that Sirius wasn't exactly the sharpest crayon in the shed. Sirius's mouth was moving frantically, but he could not seem to find any words to say.

James, in the meantime, had pulled a spare Snitch out of his pocket and began to play with it, filling in for Sirius by coming up with a witty retort. Ashely and Celia watched him with a gleam in their eyes. Though their respective friends didn't know it, both girls had crushes on James, and Sirius would never figure it out, since as was previously stated, he wasn't exactly the sharpest crayon in the shed. (he also wouldn't know that crayons don't belong in sheds).

"How's Quidditch, James?" Celia asked flirtatiously.

"Quidditch!" James's head jerked violently towards her at the sound of his beloved sport being spoken into the air.

"Why would you care?" Sirius sneered. "It's not like you'll be riding on a broom anytime soon, especially not Snivellus's there."

While Ashley smacked Sirius across the face, Severus had gotten to his feet, his wand seeming to appear magically in his hand.

"_Sectumsempra!_" Severus hissed, pointing his wand at the stunned Sirius.

A jet of purple light shot out of his wand and slashed Sirius across the face and chest. Blood spurted out of him in a shower of red as he cried out in pain. Sirius landed heavily on the ground, writhing in agony. Blood continued to flow out of his partially lifeless body.

Ashley ran over to her bleeding and broken lover, while James stood in horror. His face momentarily contorted in shock before shifting into one of rage. In a flash, he pounced viciously on Snape, blow after blow landing on the latter's frail body.

Celia stood, transfixed in horror, her eyes darting from her object of affection to her beaten friend. All the commotion attracted the attention of Professor McGonagall, who stormed over in a tizzy. With one spoken incantation, James and Severus were separated, and sent flying in different directions.

Celia caught Severus to prevent his head from cracking open on a tree. Her look of horror was now mingled with worry, as James was a good deal stronger and more fit than Severus (to say the least).

Ashley was bemoaning Sirius's hurts, along with Remus, who, up until this point had been trying to read. Only when she heard James hit the ground did she look up. Both girls couldn't help but watch the winded James with expressions of deep regret **(A/N: Because, really, who wouldn't want to catch James Potter?)**

McGonagall glared harshly at the entire group and pointed them into the castle. James stood shakily, but both Sirius and Severus were in dire need of assistance. Celia put an arm around Severus, who immediately tried to jerk away. She glared at him, and he stopped struggling, looking at the ground sullenly. In the meantime, Ashley and Remus were helping Sirius to his feet, before the entire group reluctantly trudged up to the castle.

Once they were there, McGonagall directed the into her office and gestured rather violently for them to sit down. Celia immediately spotted an entire cake-chocolate-on McGonagall's desk and muttered something in which "cake" was clearly audible in a rather evilish voice. McGonagall glared at her, and Celia slapped herself across the cheek and whispered "Shut up!" to herself.

This earned her strange looks from McGonagall and Remus, the only normal ones in the room. Everyone else minus Sirius and Severus gave her sympathetic looks.

Severus was busy trying to ignore the fact that he was showing "weakness" in the face of his greatest enemy by glaring at Sirius, and Sirius was glaring back while trying to ignore the fluffy little bunnies that were floating around his head, as well as all the blood that was secretly making him squeamish.

"I trust you all know why you are here," Professor McGonagall snapped sternly. She had never looked so angry.

"We were going to play Quidditch, Professor," James said magnificently, fluffing his hair (can you tell it's a habit of his?) and straining out the window to see the Quidditch pitch. "But then Sniv-I mean, Snape cursed my best mate here!"

He indicated toward the bloody Sirius, giving McGonagall a winning smile. Ashley and Celia suppressed their urges to swoon at this.

"That's not entirely true," Celia said suddenly, "If _he _had minded his own business-" She shot a look at Sirius.

"Don't you dare blame my boyfriend!" Ashley shouted, enraged at this unexpected attack. "If that slimy Dark Arts obsessed creep hadn't-

"Don't _you_ dare-

But at this point McGonagall had interceded on the screaming.

Severus cleared his throat, and ended up hacking blood. Sirius giggled before dizziness came over him again.

"Professor," Severus said, looking at Sirius distastefully. "Potter and his crowd are always crossing lines, and yet they always seem to get away with it-

"Mr. Snape, where did you get that curse?" McGonagall snapped at him. Severus fell silent, not speaking, his dark eyes narrowed hatefully. Sensing that Sirius was perhaps going to pass out from loss of blood, McGonagall cut to the chase.

"I am detracting 50 points from Gryffindor, and 100 from Slytherin. Mr. Snape, you have come indescribably close to getting expelled for use of mortally wounding Dark magic, so I would just keep quiet right now. Mr. Potter, you will be ejected from the Quidditch team for the next week and a half for aggression. Don't look at me like that, you've brought it upon yourself."

James's mouth was gaping and he had such an expression of agony on his face that it would have been funny had the circumstances been different.

"Finally, all six of you will be doing detention every night for the next week. Together. And if you cannot get along and keep quiet during detentions, then you may just find things to get a lot worse. Now Mr. Black and Mr. Snape must be escorted to the hospital wing, so you are dismissed."

Everyone left very quickly, all without looking at each other until they were out the door.


	2. Bludgers and Balls

**A/N: We are ever so sorry this is late. I won't say that we won't do it again, because we probably will, since we're just mean, horrible people like that. Hope you enjoy this chapter, and yes we DO know where we're going with this! So you all get to be in suspense…heh heh.**

Celia and Ashley flew around on their broomsticks, whacking big, heavy balls at each other. Needless to say, they were Beaters.

"I can't believe Sirius was wearing leather," Ashley said through gritted teeth as she whacked the Bludger at Celia.

"I can," Celia responded with a smirk, as she whacked it back. "I think you should dump him."

"You just don't like him," Ashley said knowingly.

"Can you blame me?"

"…Yes!"

There was a momentary pause as Ashley had to go chase the Bludger that had hurtled past her.

"That would have lost Gryffindor some points, had this been the game," Celia remarked ever so helpfully.

"I know. We'll probably lose to you guys anyway, now that James has left the team."

At the mention of James' name, both girls went into a happy daze of fantasy.

This was probably why they didn't notice the Bludger coming towards them. It knocked them both off their brooms and onto the ground where they landed with a hard thud. They heard a laugh that could only belong to stupid-ass Peter Pettigrew.

"Look," said Celia, "It's stupid-ass Peter Pettigrew."

"Wormtail, what the hell are you doing here?" Ashley demanded.

Peter was laughing so hard he wet his pants.

"All right, it's not that funny," Celia grouched, and immediately decided on a plan of action.

The girls exchanged conspiratory looks. Peter was too busy with his squeaky, annoying laughter to notice as a Bludger came hurtling in his general direction. It connected with his skull with a satisfying crack. Peter emitted a squeal and flopped over on the grass, looking deadish.

The girls exchanged looks.

"What're we supposed to do after we've maimed him?"

"Dunno, didn't think that far in advance."

"Well, we can't just leave him there."

"We can't?"

"We might get framed for it."

"It doesn't count as getting framed when you actually did it."

They stood there in silence.

"I suppose we should take him up to the hospital wing."

"Yeah. Besides, we can see our friends. Who don't know we're friends."

With that, they hoisted Peter up and proceeded to drag him up to the hospital wing.

"Peter needs to lose some weight," Celia said with a groan as she tried to shift his bulk.

"He also wet himself," Ashley commented in disgust.

"I don't understand how James hangs out with him," Celia commented, looking dreamy.

"What does that have to do with anything?" Ashley asked, confounded.

"Shut up! He's your Quidditch captain."

"What does that have to do with anything?"

"Nothing," Celia said with obvious jealousy before sighing. "James is a Quidditch Captain…I could stand being in Gryffindor just for that."

"I know," Ashley said, beaming. "Though, it is rather distracting when you're trying to practice…"

By the time they had finished obsessing over James, they had collided with the hospital wing doors.

"Hello, doors," Celia said cheerily, since it was impossible to be mad at anything when picturing James Potter in leather.

Ashley and Celia strode into the hospital wing, moving quickly between the beds. They flung Peter unceremoniously onto a bed under Madame Pomfrey's disapproving stare. Now, flinging Peter onto a bed was no easy task, but they managed.

Severus was sitting up, supported by a pillow, reading on the bed across from where Peter landed. He looked very absorbed, and although his eyes narrowed in response to the recent commotion, he did not look up. Upon noticing him, Celia ran over to his bed and proceeded to crush him in a suffocating hug. Severus winced (seeing as how his ribs were in a considerable amount of pain and whatnot) and made a vain attempt to pry Celia off him, and to hide his suddenly flushed cheeks at the same time. Please note "attempt."

In the meantime, Ashley had found Sirius. Now, this wouldn't be nearly as entertaining if it wasn't mentioned that Sirius was surrounded by a gaggle of giggling girls. They scattered upon noticing Ashley, which was definitely in their best interests, seeing as how she was on the warpath.

"SIRIUS LEE BLACK!" she yelled, fire blazing in her eyes. Sirius's eyes went wide as he desperately attempted to wipe the lipstick prints off his face.

"Um, hi, uh, Ashley," he stuttered nervously when the girl in question arrived by his bed. Ashley scowled.

"WHY are you wearing leather pants?" she snapped.

"I'm, um, not?"

Ashley's eyes flashed dangerously. "Oh, really? You mean just like how I'm not breaking up with you?"

"Wha- Sirius was cut off by a swift palm to the face.

"Celia, we're leaving," Ashley fumed. She stormed her way over to where her friend was now telling Severus what happened to Peter, and pulled her away.

"But-but-but- Celia pouted as she was dragged out the door.

Ashley and Celia stormed down several halls, several sets of stairs, and past several doors, until neither of them really had any idea where they were. Ashley was fuming about Sirius, while Celia was upset about the disruption of her visit to her friend.

"LEATHER PANTS!" Ashley shrieked at top volume, nearly knocking Celia out. "Leather pants! Does he even know the meaning of commitment!"

Celia looked rather smug. "I don't see why you're so surprised," she said, sounding quite a bit more cheerful than her face had suggested a while ago. "We can play pranks on him now. I suggest poisoning his food."

Ashley was about to point out that the poisoning of someone's food would file better under attempted murder than pranking, when they were both stopped by the distraction of a large sign in front of them, spanning the horizontal length of the entire hall, announcing

YULE BALL IN 3 WEEKS—ASK THAT SPECIAL SOMEONE

Ashley and Celia both stared at each other, the same thought occurring to them at once.

"I know who I'm going to ask," Celia said.

"Oh, no you won't," protested Ashley, "I'm getting there first."

And with that, they sped off down the hall in opposite directions, lost as ever, but each hoping that they could find the quickest route to something having to do with Quidditch.


	3. The Things We Do For James

**Celia's a/n: I hate Sirius Black. That said, I'm awfully proud of the fact that I got my chapter in before Ashley's. hehehehe! I didn't expect it to turn out this long, AT ALL. Oh well. I'm glad it did. All that being said, PRONGS! (dances off singing Prongs theme song with a fake pair of plastic antlers on).**

Celia sat bored out of her mind, listening to Slughorn drone on about some potion or other. _Who cares? _She thought frustrated, before looking over at Severus next to her, who was busily scribbling down notes. _Well, maybe **he **does, but really, who else?_

Celia turned around in her seat and surveyed the rest of the class. Why Severus had to sit up front was beyond her, especially when it made him a prime target for the Marauders, who were lounging in the back of the dungeon at the present moment.

Sirius grinned and waved at Celia in mock friendliness when he noticed her looking over at them. Celia promptly gave him the finger, and James laughed, which just about made her day. Turning around again with a huge smile plastered on her face, Celia failed to notice Slughorn looking at her.

"You look awfully enthusiastic today, Celia!" he thundered in his highly thunderous voice. "Why don't you give us the answer?"

"Uhhh…" Celia sat there looking clueless and hoping Slughorn would take pity on her. After a minute of this, she realized she would have to apply some other tactic.

"Cake," Celia said confidently, doing what she usually did when an emergency like this sprung up. "Cake, yes, definitely cake. Cake and cookies, if we're lucky."

Slughorn stared at her until his stomach made a noise that sounded like indigestion. Apparently, either the silence or his stomach had embarrassed him, so he decided to let her be and move on to splitting the class into pairs. Celia thought that was a good choice.

Celia remained in her seat while Severus went to fetch their materials. James was with Sirius, as was predictable, and Peter was with Remus. Remus didn't look too happy about this. She didn't blame him. She saw James making a grossed out face at one of the ingredients, and suddenly wished that the class would end. If it went on any longer, she feared she would implode at the process of what she was going to do afterwards. She badly needed a distraction.

"Sev," she said, thinking randomly. "Do you think I could actually do something this time? I mean besides watch the cauldron." Her eyes darted to James and back again as she spoke.

Severus looked up from tracing the instructions with a spidery finger, and raised one eyebrow. "Since when do you care how we do this?" he said, surprisingly coldly. He had been rather like this the whole class, but Celia couldn't imagine what was wrong.

"I just think that we should have equal shares of the work, that's all."

Severus snorted softly.

"Well, alright," Celia said, going for the plunge. She breathed in dramatically, looked around and then breathed it all out in one whispered breath.

"I'm going to ask James to the ball after class and I'm so nervous I wish the ground would eat me HELP ME HERE!"

Severus stared at her for a good minute until the cauldron started to bubble, which apparently required his attention.

Severus worked with his head lowered for the rest of the class. His face was obscured by the glistening, oily strands of hair hanging down on either side, so she couldn't read his expression.

"Se-evvvvvv!" Celia groaned in despair.

"What do you need _my _help for?" his motions were jerky and unnaturally stiff as he cut his newt tails into thin strips.

"Honestly, Sev, you're my best friend…I need to know what to say, and I'm not going to go around telling _everyone _about my personal life just to get their opinions. What's your problem, anyway?"

"Oh, I think you will do quite fine on your own," Severus said shortly, though Celia could sense he was becoming a bit more cooperative.

"But what if he thinks I'm tricking him or something, because I'm Slytherin?"

"As absurdly asinine as Potter may be, it is hard to imagine that he has not noticed your…affections." Severus said this last word as if it were greatly distasteful.

"What if he doesn't say yes?" Celia whispered urgently. "Then Ashley will—

She stopped, remembering just in time that no one knew she and Ashley were friends.

Slughorn was coming around to check their progress, and Celia picked up a stalk of milkwort and was about to chuck it in the cauldron when Severus grabbed her wrist unexpectedly with his bony fingers. "No," he hissed out of the corner of his mouth.

"Whafuck?" Celia said unintelligibly.

"You must cut the milkwort stalk in half before adding it, and wait precisely three seconds before adding the next half."

"That's not what it tells us to do," Celia said, glaring at her book as if it had offended her.

"Yes, well it's better that way," Severus muttered. Celia noticed the scribblings in the margins of his own battered book, and decided not to question it.

"Awfully testy, aren't we?" Celia asked, feeling annoyed because she was finding it extremely hard to cut the stalk, and all she was really concentrating on was how to catch James after class.

"I just don't want to make a mistake," Severus said. His voice was unnaturally soft, and not in a deadly way either. There was a very noticeable pause in which Celia felt a threatening itch on her nose, and then Severus spoke again.

"Here, allow me." He took the brutalized stalk from Celia and began to slice it at an odd angle, his strangely delicate hands maneuvering the small knife deftly. Celia watched him.

"What IF he says no?" she asked a while later, not being able to get the subject off of her mind.

"Then he is even more idiotic than I first surmised, if that is possible. And don't touch that," he snapped, as Celia reached for the next ingredient. "Potter is too farcically proud of his hegemony to not be at least pleased to have someone hanging over him."

A sort of ugly flush came over Severus's sallow face as he spoke.

"Hanging over him? What's that supposed to mean-- Celia began, but she was cut across by the bell announcing the end of class.

"You will leave your potions to stew, and we'll continue tomorrow!" called Slughorn brightly, over the heads of the surging crowd, as if he had not just sat through a double period.

Celia searched the crowd, and spotted James up ahead, majestically fluffing his wonderfully fluffy hair. Now how to separate him from the rest of the Marauders?

"Wish me luck," Celia whispered to Severus, who had an extremely sour look on his face as he watched James laugh about something with his friends.

"Good luck," he said tersely, barely moving his lips. Celia guessed that that would have to suffice. She would miss James if she didn't hurry.

Butting her way through the crowd, much to many people's displeasure, Celia came up alongside James, knocking Peter to the floor in the process ("Hey!") She didn't notice quite how nice he smelled until now…like freshly mowed grass, broomsticks and a very faint touch of cologne.

"James," she started in boldly. He looked at her, surprised. "I'd like to have a word with you."

Sirius turned around and started tittering. Celia looked at him in an irritated fashion and said "Privately."

James flashed a heart-melting grin at his friends and signaled them to keep going. He then leaned against the wall of the hallway outside the dungeons, with a small smile on his face. Celia thought how bright his hazel eyes were, and tried not to faint with joy. She was now way too happy about their proximity to be worried.

"What's happening?" James asked casually. His voice was to die for. Celia was used to hearing Severus's slightly nasal voice, Sirius's annoying jeer, and the random other 'normal' guy voices. James had a GOOD voice. James sounded almost like a man.

"Does it have to do with Quidditch?" James asked excitedly.

"That's right, I have Quidditch practice tonight!" Celia remembered all of a sudden. Great. That_ and_ a Transfiguration paper. "No, what I meant to ask you is if you wanted to go to the ball with me?" Celia said it without really thinking, and was very proud of herself in the moment before James spoke.

"Aw, sorry. I'm already going with someone, see."

_Should've known _Celia thought. Still, she was amazingly disappointed.

"Who're you going with then?" she asked curiously.

"Evans," James said proudly.

Celia regarded him skeptically. "And did you…_ask _her?"

"Good point. Hey, EVANS!" he called just as the person in question passed by.

"What is it?" she called back, not bothering to come over. She was looking at James like he was a slug.

"Will you go to the ball with me?"

"No way!" Lily shouted, walking on.

James's shoulders slumped. Celia felt sorry for him, but she also rather thought he should have seen that one coming a mile away.

"Well, I should go," she ventured, feeling that she ought to leave James alone to find his own interpretation of the rejection.

"She still wants me," James told her knowingly. "And I want her. And a snitch. Snitch, yeah, Snitch." And so he sauntered off, talking to himself about Snitches.

Now with nothing to look forward to but a long practice on a likely-to-be-rainy Quidditch pitch, Celia found herself in a temper.

_It must be that time of month, _she thought grouchily, as she headed down the winding stone steps to the Slytherin common room. When she arrived there, she saw several people clustered near the fire. Her eyes, however, went immediately to the corners of the room, in one of which she found Severus, a small shadow hunched over a book as always.

Collapsing down next to him, she took her Transfiguration homework from her bag as she related the confrontation with James to him, and everything else that was bothering her at the moment, which was pretty much everything.

"…and I have Quidditch practice in like five minutes, I knew he'd say no, and—and I don't get this!" She waved the paper around ridiculously in her hand.

Severus took the parchment from her and started to write. That's when Celia noticed the large bruise on his delicately protruding cheekbone, and the blood at the corner of his mouth.

"Hold it right there!" she said, alarmed. "What happened to you?"

Severus, who had appeared much more content now than in Potions class, shrugged his thin shoulders. "Black."

"I'll beat him to a pulp," Celia said through gritted teeth. Now she was feeling violent on top of angry. Definitely _not_ a good sign.

Severus handed her paper back to her. "Do what you like, Black has already acquired a peacock tail."

"Hmm…is it permanent?"

"Lasts three days."

"Excellent." Celia leaned back for a while. "Of course you know I'm still beating him up."

"Naturally."

Celia looked down at her paper. "Hey, you've done it all!"

Severus flushed a bit. "Your Quidditch practice is starting, apparently."

"Oh, that's right! Thanks for helping me, Sev. You're sweet." She leaned over and kissed him on the cheek before running off to fetch her broom.

Behind her, Severus turned bright red. Catching himself, he went to wipe the kiss off, then stopped, sat in shock for a minute or so, and went back to his book. He didn't see Celia leave.


	4. James, James, What A Wonderful Guy

**A/N: Yes, we can all worship me now, since I ACTUALLY updated sometime vaguely close to when Celia did. Oh, and PRONGS! (whips out Prongs shirt and skips off singing the Prongs theme song and plotting how to get a picture of Mr. Livsey, fellow Prongs worshipper doing the official-Prongs-worshipping-hand-thing)**

While her friends were sitting in Potions, being bored out of their minds, Ashley was planted in the Gryffindor common room, quill moving frantically over a piece of ink-splattered parchment. Despite the fact that the essay she was working on had been assigned over a week in advance, Ashley was definitely the definition of a procrastinator.

And that is why she was alone, working hard, while everyone else was busy applying themselves in a situation that actually mattered. Ashley figured that at least one of the Marauders would come up with some ingenious excuse to explain her absence, and therefore hadn't bothered to inform them. Oh well. She would catch up with them after class and find out what she had missed. Remus would be more than happy to help with that...

"Done!" The last rather fragmented sentence was punctuated with a grand flourish and a resulting large black splot on the parchment. Ashley studied it dubiously for a moment, then decided that Slughorn would probably write it off as "a display of the spectacular enthusiasm for such a fine art!"

As chance would have it, this all occurred at just about the same time at which the Advanced Potions class was coming to an end. Gryffindor students of all years began filing into the common room, creating a much noisier atmosphere than Ashley would have liked. She shrugged, figuring that once James and the others got there, things would be more enjoyable.

At the thought of the jaunty Seeker, Ashley's stomach flipped over as a wide grin appeared on her face. She was so busy musing as to the nature of his innate ability to look like he just stepped off a broomstick at all times that she nearly missed Peter's greeting.

"Oy, why did you get to skip Potions?" the chubby blonde boy pointed an accusing finger in her direction. Ashley's eyebrows shot up.

"Because-" - she coughed lamely - "I was sick."

This seemed to be a good enough response for the cretin, who shrugged and turned around to go up the staircase to the boy's dormitory. Once he was gone, Ashley surveyed the now-crowded common room, only to discover that the object of her affections was not there. Come to think of it, neither was that slimy pig she called her ex. Her gaze fell on Remus, who was watching her shyly.

"Hey, Remus," she started, crossing the room to stand closer to him. "Where're James and Sirius?"

"Well," Remus suppressed a grin, "Sirius apparently decided that it would be entertaining to sock Snape in the face after Potions and is now sporting a quite lovely-looking peacock tail. James accompanied him to the hospital wing."

Ashley blinked at him in shock for a few moments before responding.

"What? You're... you're kidding, right? Are you seriously telling me that that asinine fool decided it would actually be _fun_ to cause serious bodily harm to the person who is quite possibly the most accomplished spell-caster in our year?" Remus nodded. Ashley rolled her eyes before muttering. "Never mind, I shouldn't be surprised..."

There was a moment of silence between the two as they both watched a couple of second years fight over what looked like something a cat threw up.

"So," Ashley said finally, turning away from the bout looking slightly green, "Did I miss anything important in Potions?"

Remus moved to open his mouth, but was quickly cut off.

"And by that I mean _my_ definition of important, not your school-loving one."

"Well, in that case, then no." Remus grinned. "But we do have a foot-long essay on the properties of Scandinavian Blue Tailed Newt intestines outside of potion-making due at the beginning of next class."

Ashley stared at him.

"Huh?" came the highly intelligent response. Remus sighed in mock-annoyance.

"Would you like me to help you with it?" he asked, gaze suddenly no longer on Ashley's face.

"Yes!" Ashley hopped up and down excitedly before throwing her arms around him. "Thank you thank you thank you!"

Remus, who was slightly taken aback by the sudden display of affection, was caught off-guard for a moment. When he recovered (which was relatively quickly, as this sort of event took place pretty much every time something was assigned), he responded with a slightly-strangled "You're welcome."

Ashley released the boy and smiled widely.

"Great!" she exclaimed, quickly gathering up her things that were still spread out over the entirety of one of the tables. "So, when do you want to do it?"

"Would now be too much to ask?" Remus questioned, already knowing the answer.

"Why yes, as a matter of fact it would. We both know I don't do work on the day it's assigned." Ashley struggled to fit yet another book into her already-stuffed bag. "Tomorrow, okay?"

"I suppose." Remus had a downcast look, which Ashley failed to notice.

"Great. I'll see you later, then." she heaved the bag onto her shoulder and made to exit the common room via the painting.

"Where are you going?" Remus called after her, despite the fact that he could already surmise the response.

"Hospital wing." There was a slight pause before she continued cautiously, a consternated expression plastering itself on her face. "Hey, did anything... _unusual _happen either during or after class today?"

"Other than Sirius's new addition? No, not that I noticed." Remus thought for a moment. "Oh, that Slytherin girl - what's her name? Celia? - wanted to talk to James privately after class. I believe I overheard something about the ball."

"Whaaaaat!" Ashley's grip on her bag strap tightened. "He didn't say yes, did he?"

"No, but-"

"Great, thanks, bye!"

Before he could question why in the world she would want to know something like that about someone she hardly knew (as far as they knew), Ashley was gone. Remus stared somewhat wistfully after her for a moment before lifting his own bag and moving to the recently abandoned table to start on his assignment.

Once Ashley had left the common room, she determined that her bag was much too heavy to be lugging around and decided to drop it on the ground below a painting of two wizened wizards deep in thought at a chess match ("Young people these days, they have no respect for anything!") before continuing on her merry way.

She hadn't gotten very far when it occurred to her that the hospital wing was in the complete opposite direction of where she currently was.

"Oops..."

Twenty minutes and a trick staircase later, Ashley was on the right track. Her hand was on the handle to the heavy oak door to the hospital wing, about to open it, when it swung inward. The momentum caused Ashley to lose her balance and fall forward, right into a very surprised-looking James.

"Oh! Hello there!" James blinked a few times in astonishment.

"Hullo, James." Ashley was quite sure that her face was bright red by this point. This, however, did not stop her from taking note of the his delightful scent - like freshly mowed grass, broomsticks, and a very faint touch of cologne. "Um... how's Sirius doing?"

"Well, he has a tail." James stated knowingly. "Madame Pomfrey can't seem to remove it at the moment, either. I suppose it's a good thing he doesn't play Quidditch." He winked at Ashley knowingly, causing her to flush even further.

"Ye-Yeah." she stuttered, sounding ever-so-intelligent. _Damn it, Ashley, what are you DOING? You talk to this kid on a very regular basis and you can't even seem to ask him ONE question? What the hell is wrong with you? _"Um, James? Can I ask you a question?"

"Well, you just did," he responded, flashing a winning smile, "But I'll give you another."

"Uh, thanks..." Ashley couldn't help but raise an eyebrow at his last comment. "I was just wondering... if... um... do we have Quidditch practice tonight?" _Stupid stupid STUPID!_

"Of course! We _always_ have Quidditch practice!" James looked at her worriedly. "Why, is there some reason why we wouldn't?"

"Huh? No, no, of course not." _Do it, you idiot, DO IT! _"Um, that wasn't what I wanted to ask you."

"No?" James said with a knowing air.

"No. I mean yes. I mean..." _JUST DO IT!_ "Wanagotoballwime?"

James blinked.

"Excuse me?"

"I said," Ashley took a deep breath to relax her nerves. It didn't help. "Would you go to the ball with me?"

"Aw, I would, but I'm already going with someone."

Ashley's interest was piqued.

"Really? Who?" she asked, trying not to sound _too_ interested.

"Evans," James responded proudly.

Ashley stared at him in disbelief, knowing how the other girl felt about him. "Did she actually _say_ yes?"

"Well, no, not exactly, but I know she'll come to. Nobody can resist the Prongs." James proclaimed, ruffling his hair as if to prove his point.

_So true..._ Ashley thought. "Oh, well, then, I guess I should be going and getting started on that Potions essay."

James regarded her skeptically. "That's right, you weren't in class today. Where were you and why was I not invited to skip with you?"

Ashley couldn't help but blink blankly at him. "Because I was finishing the assignment for that class so it wouldn't be late." She spoke slowly and clearly, as if explaining it to a small child. "I figured you wouldn't want to sit around and actually do work."

"So true." James said loftily. "But we could have always played Quidditch instead."

"I...suppose..." Ashley didn't bother to point out that, had they done that, someone would have noticed that there were supposed to be in class, and when that happened, that someone tended to be a teacher, who actually cared if you were in class or not.

"Well," James said after a few seconds of dead silence. "I must go prepare for Quidditch. I'll see you at practice." With that, he strode off down the hallway as Ashley gazed fondly after him, wondering how in the world it takes somebody three hours to prepare for Quidditch.

"See you..." she echoed, somewhat delayed. Once he was gone, she debated actually entering the hospital wing just to make fun of Sirius, but decided that moping was so much more worth her time.

As Ashley headed back in the direction of the Gryffindor common room, a thought occurred to her. _James isn't going with Celia!_ she thought elatedly. _Which means I don't have to beat the crap out of her!_ Considerably happier, she continued down the hallway, daydreaming about what Quidditch that night would bring.


	5. In Which Sirius Gets His

**A/N: Yes, that's right. I updated. Finally. After a downtime of around... seven months or so. And let me tell you, it is good to be back. Wormtail and I actually had this chapter pretty much completely done before the end of school last year and just never got around to typing and posting it. That would be her fault, not mine, just to set the record straight. ANYWAY, without further ado, I bring you chapter 5.**

**In Which Sirius Gets His**

It was a warm, sunny Friday afternoon. Ashley was hanging out with the Marauders and everything.

"Look, James," said Remus. "It's that Slytherin girl who asked you out."

Ashley looked across the Quidditch pitch; indeed, Celia was making her way towards them, looking very purposeful. She pretended no to be too interested and didn't make eye contact with her secret friend.

Celia marched up to Sirius and stopped abruptly. All the marauders stared at her strangely, but she didn't pay attention to them.

"Come here, asshole," Celia said serenely. Sirius just stared at her for a while.

"Why?" he asked stupidly.

"I need to beat you up, that's why."

Sirius laughed cockily, trying to hide the fact that he was feeling a bit unnerved due to the girl's totally seriously calm attitude.

"No way; you're not serious," Sirius laughed (not noticing all the puns the narrators were putting on his name). "Why don't you go play with your little Snivelly friend? Because, you know, you're his only one. He might be missing you, poised at a window, ready to just o-" he was cut off as Celia's fist collided with his face.

Sirius fell back on the ground with a shout. James didn't notice, however, as he was too busy thinking about Snitches and ruffling his hair. Remus muffled a snicker with his hand and glanced over at Ashley, who was cracking up into her Transfiguration book.

Sirius staggered to his feet, holding a hand up to his mouth. Blood trickled through his fingers as he stared wide-eyed at Celia, who was walking casually toward him again with a lazy smile on her lips. "Wha-What was that for?!" Sirius screamed, enraged.

"Like it?" Celia asked uninterestedly. "You give this stuff out often enough ,but it looks like you just can't handle it yourself. fake sigh"

Ashley decided to hold a conversation with Celia, but she wasn't sure what people who weren't supposed to know each other talked about.

"So…nice weather, huh?"

"Yes, I agree. It's pretty warm for this time of year," Celia replied as she backhanded Sirius. Remus's face was now completely submerged in his textbook, his shoulders shaking uncontrollably.

Sirius was screaming in hysterical desperation, the anger of his dearly beloved and oh-so-recently injured ego pounding through his veins.

"Look, I don't know WHY you're so mad!" he screamed at a ridiculously loud volume. "All I did was give Snivellus a well-earned thumping! Don't worry, he'll live, he's used to it by n-" At this point Celia had, shall we say, hit him where it really hurt. He collapsed onto the ground.

"THAT," Celia announced, standing over him with an air of triumph about her, "That was what you call a _well-earned beating_."

Sirius has been rendered speechless (quite literally). Ashley was by this point rolling around on the ground in hysterics, and Remus was dangerously close to joining her. James, on the other hand, had just then rejoined the rest of the world.

"What's going on here?" he asked, an adorably confused look plastered on his boyish features.

What's /snicker/ it look /snigger/ like?" Ashley managed to choke out a few words between laughs.

"Well," James responded loftily, "It looks to me like Padfoot is a bit unconscious at the moment and that she-" he gesticulated in Celia's direction "-is responsible for it."

"You're very /chortle/ observant /snort/"

"Why thank you," he replied gratuitously. "I like to think that I am quite observant, especially when it comes to the perfectly wonderful sport of Quidditch."

"Indeed" was all Ashley could manage before dissolving into another round of giggles.

Celia winked at Ashley somewhat evilly and flew up to the castle on her broomstick, circling the towers to find her common room before realizing it was…underground.


End file.
